I have an intermittent problem routing to some sites from my MacBook Pro—often Google-related sites (arduino.googlecode.com and ajax.googleapis.com right now, but sometimes even gmail.com.) This prevents StackExchange chat from working, for instance. Funny thing is, my iPad can route to those sites and they're on the same wireless network! I can ping the sites, but not traceroute to them which I find odd.

That I can get through via the iPad implies the problem is with the MBP. In any case, calling M1 support is... not helpful.

I get the same behaviour when I bypass the Airport Express entirely and plug the MBP directly into the cable modem. Can anybody explain a) how this is even possible and b) how to fix it?

2 Answers
2

Firstly, the traceroute: sendto: No route to host message is your primary clue. Your MacBook Pro's network configuration isn't fully functional. Perhaps the MacBook is configured with some static settings that overide the settings that are obtainable by DHCP from your cable broadband modem or router?

Secondly MacBooks and iPads run different operating systems. It is possible that this has some bearing on the problem. Either in the way these devices pick up wireless settings or in the way tracert/traceroute work (normally they use ICMP protocol but some variants use TCP - it is possible that ICMP is blocked at some router/firewall)

On the Macbook Pro, can you get it to display it's network settings - chiefly default gateway and DNS servers? E.g. ifconfig -a

If you can see the equivalent informatio on the iPad - look for differences.